Above the surface
by StarsandUmbrellas
Summary: Full summary in the story. What happens when two teenage girls, Lenalee and Chomesuke discover a 'mythical creature' trapped in the local pool after a storm? -HIATUS-
1. Stormy Weather

_Chomesuke__, Lenalee, Allen and Kanda are best friends (with the exception of Kanda) living in Florida but Lenalee and her older brother are forced to move to Australia in 5 days. But one night after a violent storm, Chomesuke and Lenalee find a merman named Lavi trapped and injured in a pool. Lavi explains to them that he needs to get back into the ocean with 7 days or he'll die but trying to get him home soon proves harder than they think since a certain __Leverrier takes a sudden interest in the new boy and what happens when the young merman starts to feel feelings for a certain someone? _

_Based on modern times and the film __Aquamarine__, please read and review. Characters MIGHT be OOC so please tell me if they are and I shall try to change it so it sounds better x._

The sun was shining on the golden beaches and rushing tides of the ocean, foaming as they hit the beach. The heat was intense as always, ice creams and snow cones were a life saver, even though they tended to melt as soon as you stepped out of the shade. Most of the people reclined in the cafes or the shade of their umbrellas or even having a splash in the ocean, everyone had their own way of beating the heat. But for 4 friends, the heat didn't bother them at all, living there for most of their lives made them immune to overpowering heat waves, especially in the summer.

Yu Kanda (preferably known as Kanda), the oldest out of the group at 18, is your typical anti-social teenager that most girls fall head over heals for, Chomesuke aged 16 is bubbly and hyper who is classed as an optimist but can be quite clumsy at times, Allen Walker the youngest out of the group at 15 is a shy, warm hearted boy considered 'cute' by some girls but he had his fair share of admirers and last but not least, Lenalee Lee, slightly younger than Chomesuke is the one who holds the group together and is possibly the only one who can touch Kanda without getting her hand cut off, she was just as cheerful as Chomesuke but in a fortnight, she was moving to Australia with her older brother Komui, his job caused them both to travel around the world, but it wasn't his fault, not in Lenalee's eyes anyway, her brothers 'Inspector' was always changing their location after a few moths, just under a year or even 2 years was a miracle. Each time she would leave friends behind but this time would be the hardest.

"Don't talk about it Lenalee," Chomesuke said whenever Lenalee brought up the subject. "Don't even think about it. You need to enjoy the time we have together while you can." Lenalee nodded but turned her direction back to the ocean; pretty soon, she'd be staring at the same ocean, but somewhere different, without her friends.

"I know, but, it won't be the same with you or Allen or Kanda." Lenalee's eyes saddened, her friends were her life, her family. Her thoughts were interrupted by a playful hit with an inflatable shark from Chomesuke.

"You worry too much! We'll see each other again." She laughed and that made Lenalee laugh too, "We'll find a way, we always do, right?"

Lenalee nodded, she _was_ right and grabbed the rubber shark away from her bopped her on the head with it. Looking up at the sky, they both saw clouds beginning to gather in sky over the ocean, some of them quite dark. They decided to pack up and call it a day; Chomesuke still had no luck in getting Lenalee to swim in the ocean, a fear she had developed after her parents died at sea.

"Hey Chomesuke! Lenalee! Need some help over here!" Allen shouted over to them from the café he worked in every now and then. They both ran over to help him before he got buried under a pile of boxes, only just managing to take them off his hands before he toppled over.

"Thanks, I thought I'd be buried alive for a second there." Chomesuke giggled, "No problem, why are you packing up so early? You're normally open for another 2 hours." Allen lifted some more boxes off the floor before replying,

"There's gunna be a storm tonight," He notioned towards to the now very black clouds that were heading there way, give it an hour and the rain will pounding the ground and lightning illuminating the night sky.

Lenalee looked towards to the dark clouds, "Wow, they seemed further away 10 minutes ago, the wind must've changed."

Allen nodded in agreement, "Hey, you don't mind taking these down to the shed do you? I need to lock everything down." The girls nodded and smiled as they took the remaining boxes down to the storage shed, Allen had somehow got himself locked in a few weeks ago, had Lenalee not gone down to pool and heard him, who knows how long he could've been stuck there?

Later that night, Lenalee and Chomesuke retired to their homes, it was dark but the storm hadn't taken full effect but the strength of the wind had dramatically picked up, causing the 'For Sale' sign outside Lenalee's house to rattle. As she entered her house, everything was in boxes, photos, clothes, personal belonging and various other objects.

"Lenalee? Is that you?" Her brother called from the other room, packing up the rest of his belongings.

"Yes brother, I'm sleeping at Chomesukes tonight." She quickly ran up to her room, everything she owned was still where it always was when they first moved, packing it away now felt, somehow wrong, she couldn't do it, not yet. She quickly stuffed her pyjamas into her bag; she wanted to get out as soon as she could.

She silently came out of her room and walked into study where her brother was.

"Komui?" He looked up at his younger sister and smiled, "You off then?" She nodded in response. "I'll be helping Allen tomorrow at the café with Chomesuke; I'll come back as soon as I can."

Komui nodded and smiled, she had been staying at Chomesukes ever since Leverrier had come about a week after announcing that they were moving to Australia. Although he wasn't physically staying in their house, it pained him to see Lenalee afraid but if staying in a friends company gave her comfort, he wouldn't do anything more to disturb it.

"Just be careful you don't get hit by anything, the wind has deffinatly picked up speed." Lenalee smiled, ever since their parents died, Komui had been cautious about her well being, she couldn't blame him, she doubted anyone could, all they had were each other now.

Komui wasn't lying about the strong gusts of wind, as soon as Lenalee set foot outside, her long hair was flying in all directions. She made a quick dash to Chomesukes relieved at the warmth she received after stepping in the doorway. Chomesuke quickly shut the door behind her and they both dashed up stairs, tripping over each other on the way up.

"How's your brother holding up?" Chomesuke asked before shoving a lollipop into her mouth, her 12th one to be exact.

"He's fine, but, Leverrier is putting him under a lot of pressure. 'When are you moving?' 'Why don't you move now?' 'Why don't I just leave you alone so you can live a normal life?'" Lenalee grabbed her pillow and hurled it at the floor imagining that it was Leverriers face. Chomesuke grinned and gave her comforting hug.

"Don't worry; just concentrate on being there for Komui, that Lever-whats-his-face isn't important." Lenalee returned her hug; she needed her friends and the little family she had left now. A flash of lighting caused the 2 to look outside, rain was battering the window and palm tree's were rattling and whistling in the wind as it howled. A series of sheet and fork lighting flew across the clouded night sky. The sound of the waves crashing against the beach and themselves sounded frightening, it was likely debris would be scattered across the beach by morning, it would be a miracle if any of the stalls and cafes were in one piece.

A loud crack of thunder echoed through the sky catching the girls of guard, the power suddenly went rigid and everything blacked out leaving the girls in darkness.

"Lenalee?! Where are you? Are you dead? Please don't be dead!" Chomesuke was frantically searching the dark room for her friend. "I'm right here Chomesuke!" Lenalee glomped her and they both fell to the floor laughing.

"Well it looks like no more t.v for us tonight then?" Lenalee stated as she sat up followed by a yawn. Chomesuke agreed and flopped on her side of the double bed, it didn't take her long to fall asleep despite the very noisy lightshow displaying outside. Lenalee soon retreated to her side of the bed, eventually falling into a deep, calm sleep.

The next morning was stunning, the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky and the air was cool and fresh, the beach however looked like an atomic bomb had landed in the night. Chomesuke stood on her balcony, overlooking the mess created by the storm.

"_This'll take a while to clean up."_ She sighed at the thought of cleaning the mess but she perked up when saw Allen and Kanda already down on the beach lifting the lifeguard seat back up.

"Lenalee! Allen and Kanda are outside!" She dashed back into her room and shook her sleeping friend awake. After getting dressed, they both ran down to greet her friends by the small swimming pool. Allen was sweeping away the debris while Kanda just stared at pool; it was filled seaweed, driftwood and various other things that had been washed up.

"Looks like we'll have to drain the pool." Allen finally spoke up. Lenalee and Chomesuke ran up to their friends and cheerfully greeted them. Allen smiled as he saw them; Kanda however, kept the same expression but acknowledged the girls at the very least.

"Morning girls, you sleep okay?" Allen asked as he kicked some wood into a pile he'd just swept up.

"Morning Allen. We slept okay last night, a lot better than I thought we would, how about you Kanda?" Chomesuke asked, he turned his head so she was in his eye line and nodded.

"Fine." Was his reply, short and... sweet?

Lenalee suddenly turned her attention to the pool; something shimmering on the waters surface caught her eye.

"Hey Allen? Did you leave the pool lights on last night?"

She took a short step forward, near the edge of and it suddenly gave way, time itself seemed to slow down as she fell into the murky water. She was completely submerged; the chlorine was stinging her eyes, everything was blurred but she could see the remains of last night's storm. But something else was in the water, it looking right at her; all she could make out clearly was what seemed like fiery red hair but as soon as she saw it, it was gone.

The next thing she knew was a pair strong arms lifting her out of the water bridal style, Allen had dived in after her. She coughed and gasped for air, water splatting out her mouth as Allen layed her down on a deck chair, Kanda tossed Allen a towel and he wrapped it around her shaking figure.

"Are you okay Lenalee?" He asked her, concern and worry ringing in his voice, she nodded but didn't mention that she saw something in the dim water. Chomesuke decided it would be best to take her home since she was probably still in shock.

"You sure you're okay Lenalee? That must've been a huge scare for you."

Lenalee shook her head, "I'm fine, but there was something in there, something big. It looked right at me."

Chomesuke looked confused but intrigued. "Like a shark?" Lenalee shook her head again. "No... but, when it swam away, it looked like it was hurt." Chomesuke seemed even more interested.

"How do you know it was injured?" She asked,

"I read it in a book once, it was talking about how drift nets are a big threat to the sea life and how it effects dolphins and such, then it showed a photo and explained that was injured by a boat or a net, it told how to recognise the movement if you don't know whether it's injured or not."

"How can you tell?" She asked.

"It was hard to tell but it moved quite slow; like it was trying to move as less as possible but then again... the pool isn't that big."

Chomesuke tilted her head and that mischievous glint in her eye appeared. "Meet me at the pool tonight at 9:00pm" Lenalee regretted asking this as soon as she asked, "Why?" Chomesuke smirked, "I wanna see that thing you saw. We might be able to help it if it really is hurt."


	2. Myth into Reality

The night was calm and peaceful, the stars were out and wind was soothing, unlike the night before where the force of the wind could drag you along with it. As agreed, Lenalee snuck out her room and down the palm tree that was outside her window, last summer, they nailed small chunks of wood to the tree for steps. Lenalee had packed bandages, scissors, a medical needle and thread. If what she saw really was in a bad state, the least she could do was help it and get it back to the ocean, but was secretly hoping it wasn't a shark after what Chomesuke said and recently watching the film Jaws wasn't helping either.

Chomesuke was waiting for Lenalee just outside her house and they silently crept over to the now fenced off pool after Lenalee's fall. They both climbed over the low fence and landed with a thud on the wooden floor just a few feet away from the pool, suddenly a light came on from one of the beach houses and the girls dived onto the floor and stayed as low as possible. But that particular house belonged to Leverrier, Lenalee felt like her heart stopped when he looked through the window, praying he wouldn't see them in dull light. Luck was on their side, the light went out and Leverrier was gone. The girls sighed in relief and carefully made their way to the pool, still swimming with debris. It was ever so quiet; maybe Lenalee was imagining things when she fell in?

"Hey Chomesuke? Maybe I was just imagining things when I fell, it could've just been some seaweed I saw." Chomesuke shook her head as she took a jar from her bag full of small fish. Lenalee looked confused.

"You're not gunna catch it, are you?" She shook her again, "No, I wanna feed it and we'll never see it in all this water otherwise." She dropped the small fish into the water and it sunk to the bottom. Nothing happened, the water didn't stir at all and the ripple from dropping the little fish in soon died away.

Chomesuke reached into her bag again and pulled out a bag of gummy worms, being the sweet tooth she was, she always carried some sort of sweet with her. She even dropped one of them into the pool hoping that would coax the creature out of hiding.

"You can't give it that, they'll make it sick." Lenalee protested and pulled the bag away from her but Chomesuke didn't give up her 'treasures' so easily. She pulled them back but some of them fell into the water, they continued to squabble but finding it extremely funny at the same time, but a swish of water drew their attention back to the pool. It went still again.

"Awwh we scared it away." Chomesuke pouted.

"_You didn't scare me_."

The girls let out a yelp of surprise and turned their heads to the other end of the pool where it was darker, but someone was there, sitting in the water with the sweets that Chomesuke had dropped. The girls didn't dare move; 'it' was a boy, possibly in his teens, but what was he doing in the pool this late at night? He looked right at them then looked away as he took a bite out of the gummy worms he picked up.

"For two human girls, you're awfully noisy." He began to swim towards them, slowly, just keeping his eyes above the water, Chomesuke and Lenalee backed away from the edge in fear before he disappeared under the water again, out of site. They began to scan to the water surface; it was as if he vanished from sight. Suddenly he resurfaced scaring the girls half to death but that feeling of fear suddenly left them, that fear was replaced with confusion and disbelief, he didn't have legs, instead, he had a long, scaled green tail fin sticking out of the water slightly. He also had a scallop shell covering his right eye, possibly from an injury. Eye's wide, neither of the girls could spit out any words, they knew what he was but how could he be? They were a myth.

"You're a..." Chomesuke tried to speak and the boy gave her a funny look as he lent on the steps in the shallow water.

"A..." Not even Lenalee could say what he was and he was getting annoyed at how simple they were being.

"I see we're gunna have to take this slowly." He lifted his tail up slightly so they could see.

"Mer-Man." Lenalee tilted her head, this was actually happening, she was talking to a mythical creature and he was talking back. This is who she saw when she fell in; the first thing that triggered that memory was his hair, red and vibrant. Chomesuke however, was still awestruck and completely frozen where she sat.

"Y'know, fabled marine creature, half man half fish, mermaids more commonly spoken of for luring sailors to their dooms due to sitting on rocks and singing to them bla bla bla." His voice gurgled as he sunk beneath the water again. Chomesuke and Lenalee leaned back over the edge wondering where he went.

"Where'd he go!?" Chomesuke asked as she scanned the water. He splashed the water with his tail making the girls scream. He surfaced again at the sound of their screams which were starting to get on his nerves.

"Stop screaming! You sound like a couple of seagulls fighting over food." Anger and frustration sounded in his voice as he lay on the second step. Chomesuke carefully watched and only just realised that they could understand one another.

"You speak English?" He nodded, "Yep, we can speak every language know to man, fish, stuff like that. What can you speak?"

Languages weren't Chomesukes specialty, "I got a C in Spanish." Lenalee turned her attention to his tail; something was sticking out of it.

"Hey, what's that?" Lenalee asked him, he looked at where she was looking and sighed, "Damn thing got caught on me during that storm last night, can't get it out." Lenalee felt some sympathy for him, from the looks of it, it looked like part of a fishing net with hooks in embedded in his tail, fishermen had been using those kinds of nets a lot lately, many protesters had tried to get rid of the nets but not succeeding as much as they wanted to. It was deffinatly restricting his movement.

"I can get it out for you." She took the scissors out of her bag but he immediately tensed at the sight of them.

"I won't hurt you, lemme get this out." She gently began to cut away the hooked threads, he winced and every fibre in his body told him to get away but he pushed that instinct aside and waited for her to finish.

"There." She put the scissors away and threw the netting in a bin, the boy moved his tail, it felt less painful now and he was grateful for it.

"Thanks." He smiled at them. Maybe without the tail, that smile was almost, human. He suddenly started rubbing his left eye, "What the hell is in this? It stings."

"That must be the chlorine, it stings our eyes aswell." Chomesuke chirped but the boy didn't look too pleased. The light suddenly turned on again but Leverrier actually came out this time with a torch.

"Who's there?!"

"Shit, its Leverrier, he's a complete psycho, you have to hide." the girls quickly pack up their things and were about to leave but the boy grabbed Lenalee's arm.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" Lenalee pulled back slightly, "We'll come back tomorrow morning." He didn't sound convinced, "We promise." He studied her face and let go, Chomesuke had already jumped over the fence.

"Lenalee c'mon!" Chomesuke whispered to her.

"Don't get seen." Lenalee warned him before they left, Leverrier getting closer. The boy nodded and quickly hid in the murky water just as the girls left. Leverrier stood at the edge of pool looking over it for any sign of people there; luckily, he didn't see the girls or the boy and went back to his beach house.

**..:~~:..**

The next morning was bright and warm; the ocean was calm and the waves where gently rushing across the beach as the tide went out. Lenalee began to wake from her slumber, turning away from the sunlight, she saw the jar that Chomesuke had brought with them the night before, then it hit her. Had that _actually _happened last night? Was there really a merman in the pool? She gently shook her sleeping friend awake and showed her the jar, they both laughed but an unfamiliar sound drew their attention to outside, it sounded like a big vacuum. They both ran onto the balcony and to their horror, the swimming pool had been completely drained!

"This is bad! This is very bad!" Chomesuke said as they dashed back into the room. They quickly got changed into their bikinis, shorts (that actually belonged to Chomesukes brother before he moved out) and t-shirts before they dashed down to the pool. Sand and seaweed was all that was left in the drained pool.

"He's not there." Lenalee said, and she was right, he wasn't in the pool. Chomesuke was confused and quite scared; what if he got caught by someone?

"He can't have just got out!" Chomesuke cried out, "I know I know but..." Lenalee was cut short by a crashing sound coming from the Snack Shack; they both ran over and Chomesuke was about to open it but Lenalee stopped her. "Wait." They both looked over and saw the men with 'vacuum' leave before they opened it.

Suddenly, the boy from last night sprang up with his hand over his right eye and a tennis racket in his left, all 3 of them screamed but stopped when they realised what had happened.

"Oh it's you 2." The girls started laughing as he dropped the tennis racket but still kept his right covered. "Thought you were those men with that.. sucky.. thing..." The girls looked at each other,

"Yeah... why are you covering your eye? You had a shell covering it last night weren't you?" Lenalee asked him and he nodded. "I know but I lost it when I got out, that thing was freakin me out!"

"How did you get in here?" Chomesuke asked the one question they were both wondering. "I used these!" He grabbed one of his legs and pulled it up as far as it would go so they could see.

"Whoa." Chomesuke and Lenalee both stared wide eyed; he had legs, actual human legs. But like a normal human, he couldn't keep his balance at the position he was and he fell with a loud thud.

"Ow."

Lenalee giggled but then they both realised he was in his birthday suit. "Uhmm... Chomesuke, just pop back to your house and get some shorts for him." She didn't argue and quickly dashed back to her house and came back with some swimming shorts and a shirt for him.

"There you go." She threw them at him. He came out a few seconds later with them on, he didn't look half bad but he still had his hand over his right eye. Lenalee wanted to know why he was covering it up but she didn't want ask, it wasn't her place.

"Hey, if we find you an eye-patch or something would that help?" She asked him, he didn't answer at first but accepted her proposal, the three of them went back to Chomesukes, if Lenalee went to her own room with a boy, her brother would immediately get the wrong idea and all hell would break loose. Luckily, Chomesukes mother had gone to work so they were left alone, Lenalee took him to Chomesukes room while they dug through her belongings for an eye-patch they used for Halloween last year.

"Lenalee I found it!" Chomesuke cried out holding the black eye-patch above her head, she stood up and handed him it, it was nothing fancy, just a plain black one. He took it from and turned his back to them as he put it on.

"Is it okay?" Lenalee asked him, he turned back to them, the eye-patch fit perfectly and it actually suited him. He took a step back but tripped on a teddy and fell on Chomesukes bed but as soon as he fell on it, he jumped straight off.

"What the hell was that!?" The girls looked at each other in confusion, "That's a bed. It won't hurt you." Chomesuke stood on her bed and began to jump up and down on it, intrigued by this, he began to jump up and down aswell, immediately enjoying it.

"How the hell can you sleep on these? I'm gunna do this all day." Lenalee giggled, he was like a child in a way, things that were normal to them was different and amusing to him. After 10 minutes of bouncing he finally settled down.

"So, do you get to keep them?" Chomesuke asked, he shrugged, "Apparently, we can only keep them when the sun's out and we have to keep them dry... well that's what I've heard, wasn't my intention to actually do this, I've got no faith or trust in humans... except you 2, you're not as bad as the other ones."

"Other ones?"

"Yeah, they stay in these boats and they leave those nets with hooks in them everywhere trying to catch us or something else... every now then someone gets killed, they get caught, they struggle and bam, meal time for the sharks."

Lenalee's eyes softened, she had no idea how much damage those nets were actually causing. "Im sorry..." She finally spoke up, "Yeah.." Chomesuke said aswell, but he gave a half hearted smile.

"Its okay, to be honest, its better we get eaten, if those humans found the remains, they would come looking for us...well... those who don't already will do."

Chomesukes eyes widened slightly, "They actually try and hunt you down?" He nodded, "Tried and failed, no one's been caught, got close but escaped in the nick of time." He rested his hand on his right eye, then the girls realised why he covered it up, he must've got caught in one those nets before but managed to escape before it was too late. They didn't ask though, it might've been something else or a completely different reason for covering his eye.

"Anywaaaaaaaay, you 2 are called, Lenalee and Chomesuke right?" They nodded "Yep, what's you're name?" Lenalee asked him.

"Name's Lavi."

**..:~~:..**

They spent the rest of the day showing Lavi around, although, he was very cautious of everyone around him not giving them a second look. His eye patch seemed to be drawing attention to him and he wasn't too happy about it, luckily he just ignored them and stayed by the girls.

"So this is pretty much the town." Chomesuke said as they began to head back to the beach. They suddenly heard a loud car zooming towards them, Lenalee and Chomesuke knew who it was and they groaned knowing what to expect. A red sports car skidded to a stop beside them, 3 teenage boys, no older than 18 sat in back and the 'leader' of them driving.

Cayne Spencer

The most 'popular' guy on the street and well known since his father owned the aquarium. He was the typical spoiled rich kid that always got his way and always had the 'bitchy' girls do his every command, this time however, he was interested in Lenalee.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" He slid his sunglasses down slightly to get a better look at Lenalee but his attention quickly shifted to Lavi. "Who's Mr. eye-patch?" His friends laughed at his remark.

"This is Lavi," Chomesuke pointed out, "He's my... cousin." Cayne wasn't interested in who _he_ was, what bothered him that he was with 'his girl'. "Well.. Lavi? Since you're new, I'll let you off for being with my girl, but next time I might just have to beat the shit outta you." They laughed again but Lavi kept the same expression he had when they first pulled up.

"You can try but I know 103 pressure points on your body, 43 of which can kill you in second... depending on how hard I push them." They stopped laughing and began to look at each other, then looked at Cayne for a response. He just smirked, "You'd better watch yourself new boy." Lavi was about to answer but he suddenly realised that the sun was setting, he needed to get back into the water or his tail would come back in front of them.

"Lenalee? Need to go somewhere... now." Lenalee realised the sun was setting aswell. "Chomesuke we need to go!" She grabbed Lavi's hand and began to run away from the boys, Chomesuke close behind.

"Where are we taking him!?" She cried, "Back to the ocean!" Lavi stopped, "No! I can't go back now, those boats are still there and they'll see me!" Lenalee stopped, they had to think about this, where could they take him that's isolated and where no one would even think about going to? Then it hit her.

"I know somewhere."

Lenalee had taken them to huge water tower that had been abandoned years ago, it was only ever used when they suffered a terrible drought but it's been out of use ever since. Chomesuke stared up at the tower, heights weren't her favourite thing and there was no way she was going up there, Lenalee and Lavi would have to go up by themselves. Lenalee and Lavi began to carefully make their way up the ladder.

"What's wrong with Chomesuke?" Lavi asked, "She's not good with heights, long story." Lavi looked over his shoulder, the sun was a lot lower now and streams of pink and amber were streaking across the sky. Lenalee came to the part of ladder that was connected to another half of it but it suddenly came loose almost making her fall but Lavi pushed her back towards it so she could her grip back. The stopped for a few seconds, making sure it wasn't come away completely. It was stable.

"Thanks." Lenalee said as they carried on up the ladder. They finally got to the top and she unlocked the iron door, it was full of water and was big enough for Lavi to swim around in.

"Is this going to be okay?" She asked him. He nodded and smiled, "Yeah."

Lavi took his shirt off and left it on the side before he dived in. There was blue glow shining from the water and his tail had reappeared. Lenalee couldn't help but smile. He had a little swim around before drifting back towards her.

"Wow... I almost forgot." Lavi looked back at his tail, "Yeah, me too. This is nice, better than that pool I was in before." Lenalee laughed, "I'll come back tomorrow morning." She shut the door slightly, enough so he could outside.

"I'll see you tomorrow... fish butt!" She laughed and quickly headed back to the ladder. "I heard that!" Lavi cried back to her.


	3. Starfish and Dolphins

The next morning, Lenalee cautiously made her way up ladder of the water tower where they had left Lavi the previous night, she made her grip slightly tighter this time, the ocean breeze had turned into strong gusts carrying sand and dust along with it. As she got to the top, she was surprised to see he was already up and dressed, most of the boys she knew would probably still be asleep. She also noticed that the shirt collar was turned up slightly.

"Hey Lenalee." He smiled at her causing her cheeks to flush.

"Hey, were you okay in there last night?" Lavi nodded, "Yeah, was a lot better than the other night." Lenalee smiled as they carefully began to make their way down the ladder and back onto level ground, but Lavi noticed that Chomesuke wasn't with them.

"Where's Chomesuke?"

"She went to work with her mom this morning; she'll be back this afternoon." Lavi tilted his head slightly, "So... where are we going this time?"

Lenalee smiled at him, "We'll go to my place for a bit, my brother will be at work all day." A strong gust of wind blew sand into their faces causing them to cough and spit the sand out of their mouths; it wasn't _the_ most pleasant taste. With the fear of being blinded by the sand, they both made a dash for Lenalee's house, but they stopped to find police and an ambulance around the pool and the bar, afraid someone she knew was hurt, Lenalee quickly dashed over to one of the police officers, Lavi followed but kept his distance from the group of people but was close enough to hear what they were saying.

"Has someone been hurt?" Lenalee asked, "We had a report from someone saying they heard someone being attacked saturday night." Lenalee gasped. That was the night they found Lavi.

"Do you know what happened?"

"No idea, there's no sign of a body or any blood anywhere." Lavi kept his head lowered slightly, causing his hair to fall over his eye. Lenalee went back to him sensing his uneasiness.

"Can we go?..." He asked her, his voice was low. Lenalee nodded and smiled at him as they both headed to Lenalee's. It was different to Chomesukes, books were everywhere along with boxes of household possessions. Lavi couldn't help but stare at his surroundings; everything was still new to him.

"So.. what does your brother do?" He eventually spoke up, "He's a marine biologist, he and some other scientists did a huge clean up in the ocean and they're still doing it now." Lavi was pre-occupied with looking at the photos that hadn't been packed away.

"Really? Tell 'im thanks 'cause it tastes a lot better than it did a few years ago." He turned his attention to a fairly large bowl with water and a little sunken pirate ship inside, taking a closer look, he noticed a little gold fish hiding inside.

"Lavi what are you..?" Lavi looked at the light sitting over the top of the bowl then back at the fish.

"He doesn't like this light." He moved the light away and the little fish came out of hiding. Lenalee's eyes lit up as soon as he did, she hadn't seen her little fish in weeks.

"Moby!"

A sudden knock at the door made Lavi jump and he stood quickly. Lenalee placed her hand on his shoulder telling him to relax; Lavi looked into her amethyst eyes and immediately calmed down but was still uneasy at who was at the door.

"Stay in the living room, okay?" Lavi nodded as Lenalee went to answer the door, praying it wasn't her brother or Leverrier. Then again, why would Komui knock? She answered the door to find Allen standing there.

"Hey Lenalee." Lenalee smiled as a wave of relief washed over her, "Hey Allen, what are you doing here?" Allen smiled back her but looked around before he answered, as if he were checking he were being watched.

"Well, we hadn't seen you all day yesterday; I thought something might be wrong." Lenalee's eyes softened, "I'm fine don't worry, Chomesuke and I were just showing someone arou-" A loud thud and a yelp of pain from the other room stopped Lenalee mid sentence.

"One sec." Lenalee dashed back into the living room to find Lavi tangled up in the sofa cover. He looked up at her from the floor and grinned, "Sorryyy." Lenalee rolled her eyes but laughed as she helped untangle him.

"Everything okay Lenalee?" Allen cried from the doorway, "Everything's fine Allen, don't worry." Lenalee helped Lavi to stand and he looked towards the doorway and saw Allen; something was telling him that he could trust him unlike those other humans who kept staring at him yesterday.

"Lenalee! I gotta go, I think your brother's home!" Lenalee felt her heart stop, Komui had come home early and she had a _boy_ with her! She had to hide him somewhere.

"Allen wait!" She quickly grabbed Lavi's hand and ran outside to Allen, "Allen this is Lavi, Lavi this is Allen." Allen smiled and held out his hand, "Hi Lavi." Luckily for Lavi, he never paid any attention to his elders about going to the surface, especially when boats were around. He'd seen humans do the same thing Allen was doing and shook his hand.

"Is it okay if he stays with you for a while? If Komui finds him here... well you know what'll happen." Allen understood perfectly well, while Komui wasn't the 'violent' type... wait, you shouldn't lie, he was _very_ violent. The freak outs were particularly scary to witness, let alone be in the middle of. Though Lavi was a little nervous about spending time with someone other than Lenalee or Chomesuke, he felt Allen wouldn't be a threat if his 'secret' were to get out. Luckily, the 2 boys were able to sneak off without Komui noticing that they were there at all. Lenalee, Allen and Chomesuke had made a little 'path way' after they found out about Komui's rule on boys in the house alone with Lenalee.

**..:~~:..**

Later that afternoon, Lenalee couldn't help but worry about Lavi and Allen, what if Lavi accidentally got his legs wet? Allen would freak out! She even began to wonder if he had a limit on how many people knew about him. In an attempt to ease her worry, she began to flick random books on mythology, Poseidon, Neptune, Triton, Atlantis, Mermaids. She'd finally found what she was looking for and it seemed to sound right:

_If a mermaid were to surface, they grow legs until sundown, they must return to the sea or another form of water. If their legs are to come into contact with any form of liquid then their tail will grow back within 10 seconds. _

Unfortunately, there was no mention on whether humans knew about their real form. But there was something that made her heart ache, when they change from mermaid to human, it's said that it's a painful process, new bones forming from the waist down into working legs was agonising for them which is why hardly any of them come to land. Then she realised, why the police were there, it was Lavi someone had heard, it must've been. Maybe that was why he was already up this morning; he didn't want her to see.

There was a mention of past mermaids that would bring humans down to their home forgetting that they couldn't breathe underwater, but some thought that they would drown them out of spite or hatred towards them. She also remembered Lavi telling them that mermaids would sing to sailors and cause them to drown but sirens and mermaids looked very much a like, physically and vocally. She put the book back in its box, Lavi had only been gone a few hours and she was missing him already.

The phone began to ring, snapping Lenalee from her thoughts.

"Lenalee, could you get that? I've got my hands full." Lenalee quickly dashed downstairs and picked the phone up.

"Hello?"

"_Lenalee you gotta come over!"_

"Allen? What's wrong?"

"_You wouldn't believe me if I told you, just come quick!"_

Lenalee fell silent, it had happened. She quickly put the phone down and slipped her shoes on, "Komui I'm going to Allens, I won't be long!" She dashed out the door before he had to time to respond. Allen didn't live that far, just a five minute walk but 2 minute run for Lenalee.

"Lenalee!" Lenalee turned her head to the familiar voice and saw Chomesuke running up to her. Her mom must've finished early today; she'd normally get home around 4. Lenalee quickly explained what had happened with Allen and Lavi and they both dashed towards the boys. Lenalee knocked on the door and Allen answered almost straight away.

"Allen what's happened? Where's Lavi?" He took Lenalee's hand and led them inside.

"Remember a few weeks back, when we were at your house and we got a little carried away with the dance mats and Chomesuke knocked Moby's bowl over?" Lenalee jerked at the memory, they had to put the poor little fish in the sink. Chomesuke blinked, quickly gathering the idea that some form of liquid was knocked onto Lavi.

"You put Lavi in the sink?" Both Allen and Lenalee gave Chomesuke a funny look.

"You know he's not... completely human then?" Lenalee finally asked him but she was still wondering where Lavi was. Allen gave her a strange look. "You already knew?" Lenalee gave him a nervous smile as he took them up to the bathroom. "I didn't know what to do so; I put him in the tub..." Lenalee and Chomesuke couldn't help but let out a small giggle, Lavi could just about fit in at all, the last few centimetres of his tail was turned upwards due to the lack of space. He looked up at them and grinned.

"Hiii."

"Hey Lavi!"

"How on earth did this happen?" Lenalee asked.

Allen sighed a bit, "It was my fault, the evil kitchen sink struck." Lenalee giggled, for she too had become a victim of the sink, she turned the tap too fast and it soaked her. "I'm guessing Lavi was the latest victim?" Allen nodded and sunk to the floor, "This is so weird..." Lenalee smiled at him, she couldn't blame him for being shocked, something as big as this would surprise anyone.

"You okay in there Lavi?" Chomesuke asked and he nodded, "Kinda small though." Lenalee smiled again, "Do you want to get something to eat? You haven't eaten anything else apart from those gummy worms."

Lavi gave her a small frown, "But I like the-" He was cut off by a fairly large seashell on the window sill beginning to glow and vibrate, almost as if it was ringing like a phone. Lavi groaned. "Great, he's found me." All 3 of them stared at the shell. Lavi sat up straight in the tub and looked at them, "Did you know you can hear the ocean through these?" Chomesuke nodded, "Yeah, everyone knows that." Lavi picked up the shell and looked back, "Well the ocean can hear you aswell."

He nervously held the shell against his ear and finally said, "..Hello?.."

"_Lavi! What the hell do you think you're doing!" _An angry voice shouted through the 'phone', so loud in fact Lavi had to move it away from his ear. "Calm down gramps! I got caught up in that storm and I got stuck!" The voice continued to yell at him, "What are you complaining about? I can learn more about humans this way!"

Allen, Lenalee and Chomesuke felt a little awkward listening to the argument, Lavi was trying to get a word in the conversation but was failing. Allen then noticed that storm clouds were heading their way at an abnormally fast pace, they seemed to angrier at the same rate Lavi did. "I'll be back before that happens so calm down!" With that he slammed the shell back down on the shelf and the storm clouds disappeared in an instant. Lavi leant back and sighed. Lenalee was the first to speak, "You okay, Lavi?" He smiled slightly and sat up again.

"Yeah..."

"Was that your granddad on the phone?" Chomesuke asked. He shook his head. "Kind of, we're not related but he's been looking after me since I was 10. Can't really remember what happened to my parents…" Lenalee, Chomesuke and Allen looked at each other, one way or another; they'd lost a parent or both. Remembering what happened to them was bad, but to not remember at all, it was hard to imagine. Lavi noticed this however; he needed to change the mood. More importantly, he needed something that only they could get for him.

"Hey, I need your help."

**..:~~:..**

Lavi had taken the girls down to the docks, away from the boats. Allen had been called back to the shop so it just left them three.

"Lavi, what are you up to?" He grinned at them, "I need you to swim over to that light thing and get some little starfish for me." Chomesuke stared at him, then looked back at where he told them to go. It was a decent way to go. "You really want us to swim that far?" He smirked this time, "I'll get you a ride, don't worry." With that, he put both his forefingers in his mouth and made a very strange whistle. The girls didn't know what to expect but received a very pleasant surprise when a pair of bottle nose dolphins popped up from the water, squeaking and playfully flicking water up at them with their nose.

"They'll get you there and back." Chomesuke couldn't stop smiling, she loved dolphins and she'd always wanted to swim with them, but Lenalee had a sad look on her face. "Lenalee c'mon, don't make me do this by myself." Lenalee shook her head, "I'm sorry Chomesuke." She smiled at her, "You go, I'll wait here." Chomesuke gave her a hug before she slipped into the water. She held onto the two dolphins dorsal fins and they began to pull her towards the floating life light. She couldn't help but laugh from the joy she was feeling. Lenalee smiled back at her and waved, but Lavi managed to pick up that there was a hint of sadness in her 'smile'.

"You're scared of the water, aren't you?"

Lenalee looked down at the wooden dock they were sat on, it was true. "Yes, I am." Lavi looked at her again, "Why?" She continued to stare at the dock for a while, but eventually lifted her head to look out to sea. "My parents were sailors, they had their own small boat and they'd take me and my brother on it all the time. Komui told me they bought the boat a few days after I was born as a celebration." She took a photo out of her pocket and showed it to Lavi, it was a picture of her mother and father standing on the beach together. Lenalee was a splitting image of her mother. She continued.

"But, one day, they went out on the boat and… they didn't come back..." Her voice was breaking, trying to fight back the tears. Lavi continued to stare at the picture, they looked very familiar. "I've seen them before." Lenalee looked at him, "You have?" He nodded. "Yeah, it was years ago though. The boat they were on had a name on it." He had to think, he was about 11 or 12 when he saw them. "The Lena-lune." Lenalee nodded, tears threatening to spill over. "That was my parents." She rubbed her eyes. Lavi gave her photo back and put his arm across her shoulders.

"Lenalee, they were really happy when I saw them and I don't normally see something like very often. That was definitely love I saw back then." She looked at him again, they both made eye contact for a moment but a cry from Chomesuke caused them to break the contact. Lavi stood up and whistled again so the dolphins would come back with Chomesuke.

She'd found what he was looking for, a pair of very small starfish. Oddly enough, he stuck them to his ears.

"What did you need them for?" Chomesuke asked. "They let me know how much time I have left before I need to go back to the ocean." She gave him a questioning look, "How long do you have left?" He didn't answer at first; he was listening to the little starfish.

"I've got 4 days."


End file.
